James Hearst
James Schell Hearst (August 8, 1900 - July 27, 1983) was an American poet and academic, who published more than 600 poems during his lifetime.Jan C. Robbins, James Schell Hearst. Rob Library, University of Northern Iowa, July 28, 1983. Web, Sep. 16, 2014. Hearst was sometimes described as the “Robert Frost of the Midwest.” (Alluding to this, someone once said to Frost, who was a friend of Hearst’s, that he was the “James Hearst of New England.”) Life Youth Hearst was born and raised on a farm just west of Cedar Falls, Iowa, in Black Hawk County. Having completed high school early, he started taking classes at Iowa State Teachers College (now the University of Northern Iowa) in Cedar Falls, sometimes riding horseback to campus from his family’s farm. During World War I, he volunteered for the U.S. Army and was called up in September 1918, but the war ended shortly and he was discharged by the end of the year. Writing career On Memorial Day 1919, having returned to his family’s farm, Hearst was swimming with his friends in the Cedar River. He dove off the dock into the river, not realizing that, over the winter, it had become dangerously shallow. He hit the bottom with his head, fractured his spine, and was left substantially paralyzed for the rest of his life. That moment in his life, he said, was “my nineteenth year where footsteps end.” In the long process of recovering, he came up with ingenious work-around ways by which he could contribute to the operation of the farm, but, as his disability worsened, he increasingly turned to writing about plants, animals and people through the eyes of a Midwestern farmer. Hearst’s early published work appeared in Wallace’s Farmer magazine. Over many years, his work was also published in The Nation, Des Moines Register, Chicago Sun-Times, Prairie Schooner, New York Herald Tribune, Ladies Home Journal, Saturday Evening Post, Harper’s, Saturday Review, Commonweal, North American Review, Poetry, Chicago Jewish Forum, Canadian Poetry Magazine, The Sparrow, Educational Leadership, The Instructor, America, American Friends Magazine, The Iowan, Kansas Magazine, Hawk and Whippoorwill, Compass Review, Poetry Dial, Discourse, The Humanist, Wormwood Review, Iowa English Workshop, Voyages to the Inland Sea, Virginia Quarterly Review, Heartland, Christian Science Monitor, and Growing Up in Iowa. Later life Hearst was on the faculty of the University of Northern Iowa (UNI) from 1941 to 1975. During that time he held classes in the basement of his and his wife’s home at 304 West Seerley Boulevard in Cedar Falls. Recognition The fall 1974 issue of the North American Review (an award-winning literary magazine published at UNI) was designated a "James Hearst Issue." It featured Hearst's poetry, a checklist of his published works, a narrative of his life, and others' observations about the significance of his writings. In 1975 Hearst was granted the 1st honorary Doctor of Letters given by UNI. Each year, North American Review awards the James Hearst Poetry Prize.The Annual James Hearst Poetry Prize, North American Review, University of Northern Iowa, Web Del Sol, Web, Oct. 1, 2012. Following the deaths of James and Meryl Norton Hearst (in 1983 and 1987, respectively), their residence (as specified in James Hearst's will) became the property of the City of Cedar Falls, "to be used as a community arts center." After substantial expansion and redesign, the house began to function officially as the James and Meryl Hearst Center for the Arts in May 1989..About Us," Hearst Centre for the Arts, Cultural Services Division, Cedar Falls, IA, Web, Oct. 1, 2012. Publications Poetry *''Country Men''. Muscatine, IA: Prairie Press, 1937. *''The Sun at Noon''. Muscatine, IA: Prairie Press, 1943. *''Man and His Field: Selected poems''. Denver, CO: Alan Swallow, 1951. *''Limited View''. Denver, CO: Alan Swallow, 1963. *''A Single Focus''. Iowa City, IA: Prairie Press, 1967. *''Dry Leaves: New poems''. Holly Springs, MS: Ragnarok Press, 1975. *''Shaken by Leaf-Fall: Poems''. Ann Arbor, MI: Kylix Press, 1976. *''Proved by Trial''. Lacross, WI: Juniper Press, 1977. *''Snake in the Strawberries: Selected poems''. Ames, IA: Iowa State University Press, 1979. *''Landmark, and other poems: Selected poems''. Fort Dodge, IA: JiFi Print, 1979. *''Selected Poems''. Cedar Falls, IA: James & Meryl Hearst Center for the Arts / Iowa Arts Council / Donald E. Fish, 1994. *''Poetry by James Hearst: The complete collection of Mr. Hearst's poems published during his lifetime''. Cedar Falls, IA: University of Northern Iowa Foundation, 1995. *''Complete Poetry'' (edited by G. Scott Cawelti). Iowa City, IA: University of Iowa Press, 2001. Play *''The Spirit of Fifty Years: A pageant''. Cedar Falls, IA: Iowa State Teachers College, 1926. Non-fiction * My Shadow Below Me. Ames, IA: State University of Iowa Press, 1981. ISBN 0-8138-1136-8 * Time Like a Furrow: Essays. Iowa City, IA: Iowa State Historical Dept., Division of the States Historical Society, 1981. ISBN 0-89033-005-0 Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.Search results = au:James Hearst, WorldCat, OCLC Online Computer Library Center Inc. Web, Sep. 16, 2014. See also * List of U.S. poets References * Wayne Lanter, Threshing Time: A tribute to James Hearst. Freeburg, IL: River King Press, 1996. ISBN 0-9650764-0-7. * Robert J. Ward, James Hearst: A bibliography of his work. Cedar Falls, IA: North American Review, 1980. ISBN 0-915996-04-9. Notes External links ;Poems * James Hearst at PoemHunter (1 poem, "In April"). * James Hearst 1900-1983 at the Poetry Foundation ;Books *James Hearst at Amazom.com ;About * James Hearst biography at the Hearst Center for the Arts ;Etc. * Hearst Center for the Arts * The Annual James Hearst Poetry Prize at North American Review Category:1900 births Category:1983 deaths Category:American poets Category:Writers from Iowa Category:University of Northern Iowa faculty Category:20th-century poets Category:English-language poets Category:Poets Category:American academics Category:Paraplegic poets